China to Support Development of Border Economic Cooperation Zones

December 10, 2012 Posted by China Briefing Reading Time: 2 minutes

Dec. 10 – On the national working conference of border economic cooperation zones held in Kunming on December 5, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and five other departments jointly released the “Opinions on Standardizing and Promoting the Development of Border Economic Cooperation Zones (hereinafter referred to as ‘Opinions’),” which proposes 10 policies and measures to encourage and support the development of the country’s border economic cooperation zones.

The Opinions strengthens support to discount loans for qualified infrastructure construction in the border economic cooperation zones, allows enterprises under the encouraged category to pay corporate income tax at a reduced rate of 15 percent in the border economic cooperation zones located in the western region before the end of 2020, and endows border economic cooperation zones the approval and administration power of foreign investment in road transport, international freight forwarding, wholesale and other industries.

The Opinions also provide encouragement policies and supporting measures on land administration, special customs supervision, labor cooperation and project contracting, as well as facilitation of personnel exchanges.

Since 1992, China has approved and established 15 border economic cooperation zones in areas like Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning and Xinjiang, and the total approval area has reached 92 square kilometers.

In 2011, the regional GDP of border economic cooperation zones in China reached RMB43.3 billion, with industrial output reaching RMB56.7 billion. Exports and imports of such zones amounted to US$14.3 billion, with actual use of foreign investment standing at US$560 million.

The recently released “12th Five-Year Development Plan for National Economic and Technological Development Zones and Border Economic Cooperation Zones” set up the following objectives for border economic cooperation zones by the end of 2015:

The regional GDP of border economic cooperation zones shall grow at 20 percent annually to reach RMB98 billion
The actual use of foreign investment shall increase 14 percent annually to reach US$800 million
Tax revenues shall reach RMB9 billion with an annual growth rate of 17 percent
Per capita GDP shall reach RMB330,000

A list of China’s current border economic cooperation zones can be found below:

Bole Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Dandong Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Dongxing Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Erenhot Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Heihe Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Hekou Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Hunchun Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Jeminay Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Manchuria Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Pingxiang Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Ruili Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Suifenhe Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Tacheng Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Wanding Border Economic Cooperation Zone
Yining Border Economic Cooperation Zone

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